Buy a solar lamp and bring natural light to Africa

- natural light should be for everyone

In occasion of VKR’s 75th anniversary, the social business, Little Sun and the VELUX Group have established the Natural Light project. A project that generates natural light to off-grid regions in Africa through an exclusively designed solar lamp, the Natural Light solar lamp. The Natural Light project has made it possible for thousands of children to do their homework at night, as the VELUX Group already have distributed 14,500 Natural Light solar lamps - one for each employee of the VELUX Group and its sister companies.

In the efforts of making it easier for you to help bringing natural light to Africa, the VELUX Group has decided to give a solar lamp to Africa’s off-grid communities for every Natural Light solar lamp you purchase. Thus, when purchasing a solar lamp, you will automatically bring natural light to those communities. Apart from helping local children to do their homework and farmers to feed their livestock at night, you will help young, ambitious entrepreneurs developing their own business.

Young Natural Light entrepreneurs
The Natural Light project partnered up with the NGO, Plan International, to facilitate the distribution of the Natural Light solar lamp and train young entrepreneurs selling the lamps in Africa. In this way, the Natural Light project creates employment opportunities, grow communities and improve livelihood in the off-grid regions. Moreover, by using an entrepreneurial distribution model, the Natural Light solar lamp will only be sold by young entrepreneurs at locally affordable prices.

International design competition
The VELUX Group believe it is crucial to address the issue of Africans having no access to electricity. Therefore, an international design competition was held to find the perfect design for a new solar lamp. Among 172 submissions from all over the world, it were the Argentinians, Ms. Mariana Arando and Mr. Luca Fondello, whom won the competition because of their unique and flexible design.
“The Natural Light solar lamp is not only about providing energy to off-grid communities in Africa, it gives people the means to take charge of their own lives. By providing sustainable, reliable and affordable light, we have given people more independence and now they are able to work, study and cook safely in the dark”, says Olafur Eliasson, artist and founder of Little Sun.